Page 52 of The Allure of Ruins

I couldn’t have stifled the laughter if I tried.

“But I don’t want you to kiss anyone else, or fuck anyone else, or lie in bed with anyone else. You can’t—I mean, you can, of course you can, but I don’t want you to be with anyone but me. I want you to stay here with me, and I’ll get you a ring and a house and⁠—”

The trembling was expected; I was that happy.

“You must know that I… I… There’s no one else I want to be with all the time. When you smile, I can’t help myself and I smile too, and yes, you’re the best assistant I’ve ever had, but I would be just as happy, even more so, if we did different things all day, and at night we came home to each other.”

“Because?”

“Because I love you, idiot.”

I laughed and pressed my face down on his shoulder.

“This is when I normally want to throw a stapler at you.”

I laughed harder.

“I am dying right now.”

Lifting my head, I kissed him tenderly, then leaned back and stared into his eyes. “I love you too. You know I do. It’s all over me every single day. I can’t keep my hands off you, and now I won’t be able to keep my mouth off you either.”

The flush on his cheeks and throat told me that the idea of me all over him was something he was looking forward to.

“I will come clean with HR on Monday, because there’s no way I can work with you after this. I can’t believe you haven’t been kissing me this whole time.”

“Maybe it will be all out of your system by Monday.”

“It’s not the sex, and you know it,” he grumbled. “And though I want to know what we need so you can ride me, I think… I think we should maybe go get that now and⁠—”

“Ohmygod, you’re adorable.”

“Like really, let’s change and⁠—”

“Can you finish what you were gonna say?”

“What was I saying?”

I growled at him, and he cackled like a crazy person, before he grabbed me and wrapped me up tight in his arms.

“If all I could be was your best friend and boss for the rest of my life, I would have taken that in a heartbeat. I wouldn’t be as happy, I wouldn’t be living my best life, as they say, but I would accept what I could have over the alternative, which would be trying to piece together half a life with someone else.”

“I love you,” I whispered fiercely, my voice going out on me.

“Yeah, well, of course you love me. Everybody loves me.”

“That’s a wild exaggeration,” I said wryly.

“But you do,” he stated, daring me to contradict him. I could hear it in his tone. “Don’t you?”

“I do, and have for so very long.”

“That’s good,” he said before he kissed me.

I could kiss him endlessly, and as each grinding, possessive, drugging kiss was returned with equal passion, all I wanted was more.

“Okay, so are you ready to go to the store?” he asked.

I had to admit that being the focus of Colton Gates’s desire did not upset me even a little. And yes, I was ready to walk for lube.